Chromatographic and Spectrophotometric Analysis of Catharanthus Roseus to Identify Bioactive Alkaloids with Special Attention to Vincristine

Abstract

Catharanthus roseus is one of the major medicinal plants that produces the pharmacologically active terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIAs) such as vincristine. The present study aimed to investigate and qualitatively identify the vincristine present in the leaf extract of C. roseus by chromatographic and spectroscopic methods. The 80% methanol extract of leaves was further processed using the acid-base fractionation technique for the extraction of alkaloids. Preliminary identification was done by thin-layer chromatography (TLC), which gave an Rf value of 0.45. The characteristic O–H /N–H, C–H and C=O functional groups were observed in the FTIR spectrum that matched with vincristine. A major peak was observed at 3.21 min with HPLC analysis, which closely resembles the standard vincristine peak at 3.196 min. The results obtained from TLC, FTIR and HPLC analysis indicate that C. roseus contains vincristine and alkaloids. These results show that an integrated analytical method can be used as an effective tool for rapid qualitative screening of bioactive alkaloids present in medicinal plants.